Mattholomew Protestant
Human male, born 14 Aut'mo', LY 897, in Triscot, to Spivin and Athak. Brother of Joss and Lia. Spirit-talker, writer, and adventurer. "The Book of Mattholomew" is the three hundred fifty-second book of the O'Gas. Mattholomew (who goes by the nickname "Thew") is the middle of three children. Like both his older brother and his father, he is a spirit-talker. He also enjoys reading and writing adventure stories. Also like his whole family, he is intelligent, affable, and given to philosophical musings. The month after his sixth birthday, in 903, his clan went into hiding, following the Battle of Triscot. Until 912, it was believed that the children of the clan had been sent to live in secret with various foster families, prior to the battle; and that all the adults who had been on the estate at the time had been killed. In truth, it was only a portion of the clan (including Thew's mother) who had died that day. When the surname law was passed in 904, the two surviving members of the clan (who hadn't been on the estate during the battle), Darius and West both chose the name "Lonewander." Their relatives, who the two of them thought dead, heard of this, and took on the name Lonewander, themselves. That is, most of them; Thew's father, brother, and sister all took the name "Protestant," a name common to various people who had been involved in the Protestant Movement, as Thew's father had been. In 911, at age 13, Thew left his family's hiding place to become an adventurer. Since neither his nickname nor his surname gave away his relation to the supposedly deceased clan, it was no problem for him to openly call himself "Thew Protestant." He soon obtained an adult license and three stamps for it: physical, spiritual, and emotional. The mental (or educational) stamp, he decided to put off til later. In 912, his cousin Darius learned that a portion of his clan was still alive, and Thew joined the group he had recently formed, The Chaos, as they left Triscot and headed toward Near Port. However, for unknown reasons, Thew chose to part company with them before they arrived there, instead going to Kimrin. There he met Stavros Supprus, and the two of them would later work together to rescue the Chaos memebers, who had been imprisoned in Near Port by Col. Charles Woodman. These events soon led to the Chaos War, after which Thew resumed adventuring, this time accompanied by his brother, Joss. They both attended the 913 Pilgrimage to Plist, where they ran into Ginger Protestant, whom they'd both met the previous year, through Darius. Like Ginger, Thew submitted his own contribution to the O'Gas, based on a conversation he'd had with God in the course of his adventure with The Chaos, prior to their imprisonment. In this conversation, God clarified the reasoning behind His own self-imposed imperfection, a thing which had previously only been hinted at, in other books of the O'Gas (starting with the book of Connor and Brigid). He had apparently relinquished His omniscience, or at least foreknowledge of the future, in an effort to avoid "spoilers" about the development of the various worlds of the Universe, though He is able to "peek" at bits of the future, whenever He chooses, and could resume full omniscience at any time. God's explanation of the events that led to His choosing to relinquish foreknowledge also provided a cursory explanation of the reason for the creation of the Universe, and the various sentient races that inhabit it. We exist, basically, in order to create a future, something which, apparently, was impossible for God to do Himself. In 914, Thew and Joss returned to Triscot, where they both entered a local school. He graduated in 897, obtaining his final stamp and becoming a full-fledged adult. While his brother was already active as a spirit-talker in a local church, where their father had become a vice-bishop when the clan came out of hiding, Thew preferred to take some time off to go back to adventuring, before thinking about a permanent career. However, he does find it amusing that in spite of this, he's already been published in the O'Gas, while it's unclear if his brother ever will be. Meanwhile, like Joss, Thew also continues to write his own adventure fiction. See also *Lonewander clan Category:People